


The wrong side of the fairy tale (This is Halloween Remix)

by pamymex3girl



Category: Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Halloween, fairy tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 12:50:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4222359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pamymex3girl/pseuds/pamymex3girl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They’ve gone backwards somehow, from the happy part of the tale, the part where they’re whole worlds make sense, to the part where everything is messed up. They’re stuck in the part of the fairy tale before the happy ending, before the turnaround, before the world changes for the better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The wrong side of the fairy tale (This is Halloween Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [APgeeksout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/APgeeksout/gifts).
  * Inspired by [This is Halloween](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2513642) by [APgeeksout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/APgeeksout/pseuds/APgeeksout). 
  * Inspired by [This is Halloween](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2513642) by [APgeeksout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/APgeeksout/pseuds/APgeeksout). 
  * In response to a prompt by [APgeeksout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/APgeeksout/pseuds/APgeeksout) in the [remixmadness2015](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/remixmadness2015) collection. 



> I haven't written Veronica in quite a while, and I'm hoping this turned out alright and the original author at least somewhat likes this story. This story is about the Halloween 2003 part, naturally.

_There was a time, not even that long ago, that Veronica used to believe in fairy tales. Not necessarily in the magic or prince charming and fairy godmothers, but in the love, in the innocence, in the happily ever after. She’d believed that somehow that was what life would be, good would win, kind people would get their prince charming and their wonderful life._

_Lilly, not even that long ago, used to say that even if things didn’t turn out that way (mostly because Lilly had already known, perhaps always had, that life isn’t a fairy tale) Veronica would get her happy ending. Because Veronica, Veronica all kind and sweet and happy and innocent belongs in the fairy tale. In a way that Lilly never could, or more precisely never would because she never wanted to._

_Veronica would live happily ever after with Prince charming._

_Lilly was sure of it._

*

The idea itself comes from their English teacher, although the women certainly hadn’t meant to be the inspiration for their Halloween costume. In fact Veronica is entirely sure that it is only Lilly who got the inspiration, because she’s Lilly and that’s just the way she is. The assignment that started the ball rolling was an in-depth essay on a fairy tale of their choosing. It was a stupid assignment but Veronica had been reading the Grimm’s fairy tales book her father used to read her from when Lilly had arrived that day.

The book had been open on a random page of the Rapunzel story.

A drawing took up almost all of the left page. In it Rapunzel sits in her tower, her long blond hair almost reaching the ground, and the prince stands at the bottom, staring up at her lovingly.

Lilly had taken one look at the book and said: “That’s it, that’s what you’re going to be for Halloween. Rapunzel. We’ll be fairy tales for once.”

“What about you?”

“Little Red riding hood of course, who else was eaten alive by a wolf?”

“I suppose Logan is the wolf.”

“Who else?”

She’d laughed then, insisting that they get their shopping down right away and grabbed her by the hand, dragging her with her, talking about a million things at the same time. And Veronica had forgotten that for a moment, just a moment, she had wanted to tell Lilly she didn’t want to be a pretty princess, stuck in a tower. Surely there were more interesting characters, even for somebody not quite as wild as Lilly.

Maybe next year, she thinks, maybe next year.

*

_They were the fairy tale, really, the real life version._

_They lived in an enchanted world._

_The people envied them, loved them, admired them. Everyone wanted to be Lilly Kane’s best friend, but it was Veronica Mars who held that place._

_Lilly was the princess. The rebellious one, that is, the one who never really fit into the world she was born in, but never wanted to leave it behind._

_Duncan was prince charming. Kind and noble and brave. The king-to-be._

_Logan was a knight, truly, brave and loyal and fiercely protective. Completely in love with the princess, even if that love would end up destroying them both._

_Veronica was just the girl from town, not a noble, not special. She was the Cinderella of the tale, the one who steals the heart of prince charming with her beauty and her kindness._

_They were the fairy tale._

_They were living in the beautiful part of it, the one where they were happy and everything was possible._

*

Lilly had found the prom dress in the second store they looked in.

She hadn’t liked the idea of Veronica buying a second-hand prom dress but Veronica had convinced her by pointing out that she would never wear it again. Besides, she’d said, if you use up all you’re you can’t buy a second hand dress Veronica’s, what are you going to say when we actually go shopping for our prom dresses? (Now, now that the world has been shattered, Veronica wishes she had just allowed Lilly to say anything and everything she wanted.)

The dress had been long and beautiful and very princess like.

Veronica had loved it.

Even Lilly had loved it.

“But next year,” Lilly had said “You’re wearing red satin.”

Veronica had laughed and gone to pay the dress and thought “yeah, maybe I will.”

But she hadn’t said it.

*

_The fairy tale shatters._

_Because it was never a fairy tale in the first place, but then Veronica had always known that. She just hadn’t expected to be shown it in quite such a horrible way._

_This is the real world._

_And the real world is cruel and harsh and unforgiving. Kindness and sincerity and honesty are not always rewarded. Good does not always come out on top. Evil seeps into your world, in the form of a man, and destroys everything without even caring that he’s doing it._

_This is real life._

_And nobody ever promised that life would be fair._

_The real world is cruel and wrong._

_The fairy tale shatters with the swinging of an ash tray._

_The fairy tale shatters with the falling of the princess._

_*_

On Halloween the beautiful dress and long, long blond wig hang in the back of her closet, mocking her.

Mocking her for believing it could be happing, for believing that this was actually her life, for believing she could get a happy ending.

She leaves the light’s off this year.

This was not how it was supposed to be, this is not how she was supposed to spend Halloween this year. There was supposed to be laughter and drinks and stupid games and _Lilly._ Instead she’s alone, abandoned, sitting in her dark house, her father working, her mother behind a closed door, completely out of reach.

*

_And yet, despite all that has happened, they are still a fairy tale._

_Just not a good one._

_They’ve gone backwards somehow, from the happy part of the tale, the part where they’re whole worlds make sense, to the part where everything is messed up. They’re stuck in the part of the fairy tale before the happy ending, before the turnaround, before the world changes for the better. If this_ were _a fairy tale, which it is not, the happy ending would be just around the corner, but since it’s not she knows it’s not coming. They’ve gone backwards after all, there’s nowhere left to go. They can’t get a happy ending because to get it, to gain, they’d have to change everything, rewrite history, raise the dead. And they can’t._

_The happy part won’t come, because it has already been and gotten lost._

_This is the story:_

_Rapunzel (Veronica, innocent, long, long blond hair) wanders through the wastelands, abandoned and alone. Trying to find a way in a cruel world that has turned its back on her completely._

_Prince Charming (Duncan, brave and kingly) has been blinded by pain, by grief, by life itself. He’s forever lost, wandering through the darkness that has swallowed him whole._

_The knight (Logan, loyal and protective) has turned into the vicious wolf, cruel and hurtful. He and his pack, because he’s found a pack, surround the innocent and devour her whole._

_Little Red Riding Hood, the princess (Lilly, rebellious and beautiful) has been eaten, taken from the world forever._

_This is the truth now._

_*_

She can’t remember who she was just a few weeks ago, who that girl was that walked around a shopping mall with her best friend looking for accessories for her fairy tale costume.

In the early morning Veronica hoses egg yolk and shell fragments off the front of the house.

She’s Cinderella now, cleaning up behind the cruelness of other people.

She leaves the dress handing in the back of the closet.

The wig she throws away.

*

_This is the life she lives now, the only one she’ll ever know, stuck at the wrong side of the fairy tale, stuck in the part that won’t have the happy ending._

_She’s Rapunzel in the wasteland._

_She’s Cinderella before the ball._

_But neither Prince Charming, once so kind and noble, nor the knight, once so brave and loyal, will come to save her now._

_They can’t._

_They too are lost after all._

 

 


End file.
